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Investment Q&A

Not investment advice or solicitation to buy/sell securities. Do your own due diligence and/or consult an advisor.

Q: BPF.UN I been a customer and shareholder for years. My returns have been excellent and the food is good. Recently I paid $28.00 for a four topping pizza at lunch. A menu change including prices had occurred that I didn't notice.
I mentioned the cost to the waitress and the response was " we are getting lots of comments". I'll be watching the next quarter closely.

Phil
Read Answer Asked by thomas philip on February 26, 2014
Q: Hi Peter
I have been overweight stocks for some time, and while it may still a bit premature, for piece of mind I would like to increase my fixed income weighting to approx. 30%. My feeling is that over the next 2-3 years interest rates in the US will slowly trend higher, and likely even more slowly in Canada. With this in mind, my bias is to allocate towards shorter term corp bonds, REITS, and Preferred issues (recognizing that the latter two are more fixed income proxies more than true plays). For each of these sectors do you think I am best allocating exposure via ETF's (for example, VSC, ZRE and XPF), or do you think that there is a case to be made for buying best of breed individual issues in each class. Specifically in concerns with the ETF approach is that slightly higher rates over time may see a fall in the price of VSC negate all of the dividend benefit (whereas holding an individual bond to maturity will ensure I earn a return), while I understand that there may be inefficiencies within the Canadian Preferred market (pricing/liquidity) which mean that an ETF may not be the best approach here either. Your thoughts would be most welcome. Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Shane on February 26, 2014
Q: Hi Peter and 5iResearch Team,
Do you like palladium? Is the demand for it increasing, and can you provide your opinion of both it's ST & LT outlook. If you like it, what company would you recommend in this area?
Thank you.
Linda
Read Answer Asked by Linda on February 26, 2014
Q: Hello,
In my TFSA account, I was thinking of buying higher yielding securities and trading them within their range eg BA or CPG. However, you do not encourage active trading and prefer longer term growth strategy in a TFSA; Would you please suggest 3 or 4 lower beta names?
Thanks,
Tony
Read Answer Asked by Antoine on February 26, 2014
Q: Re: Owning Rental property vs. REIT's
Hi 5i,
If you feel that this holds no value for the members, don't worry about posting it. My preference is for holding REIT's and this is as a direct result of having been a landlord. We bought a rental property that had long-term tenants. For the first year or two, things went very well, but then the bread-winner in the family developed a mental health issue and things went very poorly. Even though (or perhaps because) the house was only a block away from our house, the issues piled up and the stress in dealing with the tenants (whom we thought of as friends by this point)became overwhelming. Then, unexpected job insecurity at my workplace. Long story short: we sold. While we did not lose money, we didn't make a bundle either, but the stress (for us, anyway) of being landlords was more than we were comfortable with. REIT's, on the other hand, offer far more peace of mind and stability. I appreciate that for every negative story about direct ownership there will one or more positives - but I thought I would share this story and point out that with ownership comes a greater vulnerability to the unexpected. In our case, both "macro" and "micro" issues. You have to know yourself very well to be able to manage these challenges. Best of luck to Andrew either way!
Cheers,
Mike
Read Answer Asked by Mike on February 25, 2014
Q: Hi Peter. I've held Lakeshore Gold for a considerable time. It went to over $4 (I should have sold)and then dropped dramatically and now is slowly recovering. I bought it at $2.50 Its production has beaten forecasts. DO you see it recovering? Thanks for the great work.
Read Answer Asked by Cam on February 25, 2014
Q: If possible could you comment on LUN Lundin Mining. It has the high short position on the TSX at 62 MM shares short and quite flat trading for past year. It is trading below book value at .743 and a PE of 20 What considerations does 5i give PB and PE when looking at mining stocks?

New subscriber and I am totally impressed :)

Thanks for your time and insight
Read Answer Asked by Bill on February 25, 2014
Q: Do you believe there is a sell-off in Canadian tech stocks right now with a rotation into resource or metals shares? Many of them seem to be declining in synchronous fashion lately. thanks!
Read Answer Asked by Michael on February 25, 2014
Q: Hi Peter and team.
In response to Franks earlier question about DHX's weakness today. I feel it is due to James Hodgins on BNN market call. His opinion is that it no longer has the growth profile since it became a content and distribution play. But that is the opinion of one analyst that I don't share.
Read Answer Asked by Peter on February 25, 2014
Q: Dear Peter and team,

On your advice, I combined (on paper) my unregistered and registered accounts to check for weightings, and was appalled at my energy weighting which was much greater than you recommend and than I thought. I need advice about what to cut to reduce it. My holdings, with percents, are as follows: CNQ 3.2; FRU 4.7; IPL 7.8; NPI 3.5 (TFSA down 13%); PKI 5.1; BEP.UN 3.9. Can I count IPL as a utility? What about FRU? Both have great dividends.

Many thanks for your truly splendid service. I look forward to my daily 5i research "hit."

Read Answer Asked by M.S. on February 25, 2014
Q: voting vrs non voting shares.

Even with lower volume and a premium to non voting shares, if the non voting do not have a coattail provision, would you buy the voting.
Years ago I lost huge upside when a premium was offered to voting shares only.
thanks
Read Answer Asked by Leon on February 25, 2014
Q: PETER. JAPANESE STARTING TO RESTART THEIR NUKES . YOU THINK U - T WOULD BE A GOOD WAY TO PLAY INCREASED URANIUM USE?
Read Answer Asked by EDWARD on February 25, 2014
Q: Hello Peter & Company,
I have opened a TFSA account ($20k) as a quasi savings account, which means that I may need some of the money in short notice.
I invested $5k into BA at $25.50 a share (it has a yield of 6% and fluctuates between $25 and $28); I plan to sell at around $27-$28 and buy back at around $25. Does this make sense?
If it does, are there other securities with similar characteristics? If it does not, what alternatives would you suggest?
Thanks,
Tony
Read Answer Asked by Antoine on February 25, 2014